Roses are RED
by Loobylou900
Summary: Scout naturally feels left out as the youngest of the group in RED, but after a mysterious encounter with one of the behind-the-scenes maintenance workers of his own age, he starts to find a friend, and even a lover.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One - A Good Night's Rest**

The "Team Fortress" programme had been going on for years now. In the beginning it has just been Blutarch, Redmond and Grey Mann, years ago, before Team Fortress favourites like Saxton Hale were even born. After they got too old to successfully fight without self injury, and later were killed, the classes were formed. Abraham Lincoln, Fu Manchu and others formed a super team and fought to the death over and over again to keep the RED vs BLU tradition. But soon even they started to grow old and die off, and a new team was formed. The "Team Fortress" programme v2 consisted of nine classes, each so different in skills and personality to one another, plucked from every corner of the world. BLU fought RED, RED fought BLU and thus the pattern repeated, with a little extra help thrown in from Mann co, Saxton Hale, the mysterious Administrator, and many others. And when the new team gets old and crippled, another group of fighters will take their place, and so the Team Fortress programme continues. But until then, the classes known as the v2s still remained, nine of them to be exact.

Known during work as only their code-names, which are coincidentally the same as their jobs, the v2s currently consist of the German medic Artur Kluge; the Texan engineer Dell Conagher, the Australian sniper Jack Mundy, the Russian heavy Weapons specialist Filip Bogdanskii, the French spy, Sebastién Couteu, the American soldier Anthony Pikeman (more commonly know as Sarge), the Scottish Demolitionist Tavish Degroot, the mysterious Pyromaniac only known as Pyro and the Scout, Bobby DeVito, from Boston. Though teams RED and BLU differ slightly in personality, the classes are generally the same on either side, but for this story were going to focus generally on RED team.

It was mid-autumn, and the chill was starting to set in as the nights grew longer and the fights grew wearier. However, the matches must still go on, and RED had just finished one, albeit with a sorry loss of being beaten 10-0 by the opposing team, and the only solution to cheer everyone up seemed to be a game of poker. Though Bobby didn't quite understand the game and kept getting things wrong, the other older and more experienced team members played solidly for the rest of the night, eventually downing more and more alcohol and getting rowdier as the hours ticked away. Eventually getting bored, the young Mr DeVito scampered off some place to kill the hours, maybe even catch a quick nap on some rooftop where he was unlikely to be disturbed. A few nights before he'd the "whipped cream in the hand" trick on the sleeping Filip, which hasn't gone down well when the hulking mountain of a man rose from his sleep with whipped cream all over his face. Things would've got worse if Bobby hasn't have high-tailed it out of there as fast as his legs would carry him, and didn't want to take the risk of sleeping anywhere near the Russian monkey for a good week, at least. So for now at least, it appeared the youngest of the v2s would be sleeping elsewhere. But he had to keep on his toes whilst doing so; after all, sleep in the same place more than and they could very well finding his hiding spot while he slept innocently, causing all sorts of harm to his unconscious body. Though the fact that recently the classes had been moving areas a lot recently helped, Bobby still had to be intelligent about where he decided to spend the night.

Tonight they were occupying 2Fort, and Bobby knew the ins and outs of this place better than any of the other maps. He decided to sleep down near the Intel room, as it would not only provide somewhere right under his teammates's unsuspecting noses to camp out, but various means of escaping if someone were to find him. It wasn't the comfiest of places, but it was better than a midnight revenge tea bagging session, or whatever else Filip thought up. He curled up behind the Intel desk, which sheltered his smaller frame well enough to not be seen unless people were distinctly looking to find him there. And as midnight came, he flicked the light switches and curled up on the floor behind the desk to try and catch a few winks of sleep.

_"Clunk"_

Bobby opened one eye, curiously. It was doubtful that that noise was anything at all, but he had to stay on his toes at all times. He waited, dead still and head cocked to hear another noise.

_"Scritch scritch scritch"_

He sat bolt upright. There was definatley something around: Bobby didn't know exactly what it who quite yet, but he knew SOMETHING was snooping around. A hacking cough and some stumbled footsteps resonated from the corridor to the side, followed by a loud clang of someone hitting the lockers - hard - and then heavily accented, and very slurred, swears.

"Aye, ye fucking... lockers!" - followed by anther loud crash and the pleasant sound of a far too drunk Scottish man retching up the alcohol he'd just spent all night carelessly chugging away at. Bobby rolled his eyes and decided that he might as well tell Tavish to go get some sleep, or at least kick the lousy drunk out of his bedroom for that night. "Ay, you frickin' drunk, get out of here!" He shooed, pushing the Demo up the stairs until he waddled away, cursing intoxicatedly. Bobby let out a sigh of relief and returned to his sleeping area, the beeping and whirring of computers disturbing his thoughts until he started to get used to them, but then-

_"Chink chink... **CLANG"**_

With the final noise Bobby jumped up to his feet in a half-sleep that left his sight whirling and his head cloudy. After steadying himself, he decided that investigating the source of this mysterious noise would be for the best. It was around three in the morning, and most of the other team were probably asleep by now, so whoever or whatever was making that noise had to be gotten rid of if Bobby were to get any sleep. Similar sounds followed, getting louder as he made his way outside the Intel room. He took one final slow step into the neighbouring area, with the dried vomit of Tavish still upon the ground in the corner. Gagging at the smell, Bobby heard the familiar "clang" once again, and quickly turned back, and he saw a figure in the distance. He couldn't make out the face or the body too well, maybe because of the dark or maybe because he was still half-asleep, but he could tell it was a girl around his age. "H...Hey!" He called out, but before he could even finish the word the girl had spotted him, eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights, and she fled. No problem, he thought to himself. Bobby was the fastest in the whole programme, he could easily catch up with some mysterious girl. She had disappeared up the steps that lead to a small courtyard outside and then to the main building, and so that's where Bobby set off to, but when he got there the girl was gone. He blinked and scoped the area, investigating the corridors surrounding the courtyard and the whole of the RED team main building. Again, he couldn't see any sight of the strange girl. It was as though she'd disappeared into the air itself. With the confusion of that playing at his mind, Bobby decided to retire one last time to the Intel room to get some well-deserved rest and trying to let the sight of that mysterious girl leave his mind.

_-author's notes-_

_Hey all! I just hope that you all like this, if anybody actually reads it at all OTL. Just want to say, please hold back on the flaming, I love TF2 and play it religiously but I'm not too down there with the backstory and whatnot, so if I got any of that wrong in the first paragraph, don't yell at me! Just inform me nicely and I'll change it C:_

_Hope you like!  
-Looby  
_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two - Watch the face!**

"I'm telling ya, Doc, I saw a ghost!"

Bobby had been buzzing around Artur and various of RED team members all morning, explaining about the girl he'd seen last night, but the older man was having none of it. He rolled his eyes again and carried on feeding his pet doves. Bobby furrowed his brow in frustration. "Well then what do you think it was, mister I'm-so-smart?" He shot at the medic, who didn't reply for a long time.  
"It vas probably nothing, Bobby. You vere half-asleep und tired, it vas probably just your imagination"  
Bobby scowled. That's all anyone had said today and he'd told half the damn team. He was determined to prove that something, anything weird had happened down in the Intel last night. He spent the rest of his free time before the matches were due to begin harassing the rest of the team to try and find someone who knew anything about paranormal activities or ghosts; but the most relevant answers he could muster of his teammates was "You know, I was roommates with a sorcerer once!" from Sarge and "mmph mm mmmpmph" from Pyro, which Bobby couldn't really classify at all since he had no actual idea what he'd said.

But then the matches were scheduled to happen, and BLU made the first move. The teams were still currently situated in 2Fort, but that only distracted Bobby further as he focused more on looking around for traces of the girl he spotted last night instead of watching out for the other team and attempting to steal the BLU Intel, so he ended up getting beat up again and again over the course of the day. He'd been so focused on other things today, but to everyone else he just looked like he was playing badly for no reason. After his sixth death in a row from the same Heavy in the sewers, he decided to up his game and actually try to get the Intel. He ran, he jumped, he pulled out his baseball and caved in a numerous amount of skulls; brushing past the Heavy who has previously blocked his way, and quite soon he found the familiar buzzing of computers from the BLU Intel room. He had to take it carefully, as soon as he grabbed that suitcase the alarm would go off that he'd taken it, and all of BLU would be in him like Lions. Deciding to throw caution to the wind he ran in, grabbed the Intel and made a break for it.

No sooner had he got out the room that he chanced upon a BLU Pyro, standing guard by one of the exits of the room. As soon as Bobby was out, the Pyro fired up his flamethrower and the fires licked at the Scout's cheek dangerously. He yelped and jumped back, running the other way. The only other way to get out now was up through the base, then out the door or over the battlements. It was riskier than going up the stairs the Pyro blocked, but he didn't want to risk being set on fire. So off he sprinted, with the Intel on his back and his feet pounding mercilessly against the floor. He had to go fast, or he could never-

**"PROTECT THE BRIEFCASE!"**

The battle cry echoed through the foundations and walls of Th. building, striking fear into the heart of every RED for a mile around. It was the mixture of voices of a Heavy and a Soldier, two of the strongest on the other team, and soon they were upon him. Bobby tried to flee but the Pyro was coming up behind him, and with the Soldier and Heavy in front there was nowhere left to run.  
"C-c'mon you guys! I was gonna give it back!" Bobby tried to protest, but BLU were having none of it. Just as the heavy pulled out his machine gun and Bobby grumbled silently to himself over another defeat, the Soldier and Heavy promptly blew up, chunks of their former bodies crashing all over the room and blood up the walls. Bobby blinked, and even the Pyro behind him seemed shocked for a moment, until a red pipe bomb was thrown down the stairs and towards the Pyro, who soon met his own explosive end. Bobby turned around, back to where the Heavy and Soldier had once been, and grinned like a Cheshire Cat. Before him stood Sarge and Tavish, with the latter being healed by Artur. An alarm sounded again in the base, the icy voice of the Administrator snarling out "The enemy have taken our intelligence!" obviously speaking to the BLU team. The three ran forward, Tavish calling back  
"Don't worry laddy, we'll take care of them bloody BLUs, you jes' get the Intel!", and then off they went. Dell followed in behind them, running last Bobby was a quick "Howdy!" and setting off, obviously to build teleporters and sentries and the like. And then like a bullet, Bobby was gone. The match was almost over, there were 30 seconds on the clock and BLU was beating RED 9-8. If Bobby could get this Intel back to their base, they could at least pull of a tie, which was nowhere near as embarrassing as a flat-out loss.

His headset buzzed and the Administrator's voice echoed out. "Ten Seconds left in the mission!". Bobby pumped his self up and jumped down into the BLU courtyard and stopped when he heard the screams of Artur, Sarge and Tavish from behind.

Uh-oh, that didn't sound good.

Before he knew it the alarm was going off again and the BLU team had Bobby surrounded.  
"Five second left in the mission!"  
He tried to run, but a Heavy blocked his path. The BLU scout strode over and simply brought his bat out, swinging it full-force into Bobby's face. He swung his own bat back, but it was shot out of his hand by the Engineer's shotgun. The scout hit again and again; in the head, in the chest. The intelligence fell off Bobby's back and the clock had only one second left. One final hit from the bat to his face and the match ended, the opposing team simply leaving him there, unconscious and bleeding.

When he came to the sun had set. He stood up slowly and the blood rushed to his head, forcing the boy to sit down again. "Ah, fuck" he breathed, and a pain shot through his chest like a bullet. He limped his way across the 2Fort bridge and into the RED base. Had it been under different circumstances, Bobby would've returned to sleeping with the rest of the team today, but he hurt and after the matches ended the health packs stopped spawning. He entered the base and spotted Dell, poking at some blueprints. "Yo" Bobby tried to get his attention, holding up one hand to still his nosebleed. Dell turned looked the boy up and down and said, as though reading his mind:  
"Artur's busy, Bob. Bullet-riddled Heavies take a lot of work." He explained, then furrowed his brow, a sort of potions look in his eyes. "Try getting some sleep, grab a health pack in the morning." He smiled, then walked off somewhere. Bobby took his advice and decided to get an early night, so walked down the steps that lead to the RED Intel room. Each step was like being hit by that bat all over again. He couldn't even be bothered to move to his spot behind the Intel desk, he just collapsed next to a locker and refused to move until he had to wake up tomorrow. Just as sleep began to close his tired eyes, something hit him in the head. He shot up, the room spinning before his eyes and blood dripping from his nose and the side of his head. He looked down and saw what had hit him. A health pack lay on the floor, and Bobby immediately leapt at it like a ravenous wolf onto a deer, using it to heal his wounds and still his bleeding. He glanced around for a brief second to see if wherever this health pack had appeared from, but nobody was around him. Before he used up the pack, he decided it was only polite to yell a quick thanks, but whether it was from the pain he was in or for some other reason, Bobby's voice came out quieter than he anticipated.

"Hey... Thanks, buddy."

_-author's notes-_

_Hey again! Chapter's two's here, hope you all like it!_

_Another quick note, I write this on my iPod and tend to not read them through when I put them up here, so if anybody notices anything that doesn't read write or is spelled wrong, bring it up and I'll __change it! Thanks in advance!~_

_-Looby_


End file.
